Fall 2011/Volume 22, Number 1 news and events Program of African Studies Building on an active year

by Kate Dargis

As PAS plans another year of activities to support the research You may request a copy of Northwestern’s Africanist faculty and students, we feel it is of PAS’s annual report by important to reflect on 2010–11’s full record of successes— e-mailing african-studies programming and conferences, visiting scholars, new working @northwestern.edu, or read it groups and partnerships, and the addition of many working papers online at www.northwestern and special publications. .edu/african-studies. We Our 2010–11 Annual Report documents the growth of our adjunct major in African studies, the progress of our working hope you take time to learn groups, the establishment of new groups for the upcoming year, about PAS’s accomplishments the activities of the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in and the initiatives on which Africa (ISITA), the publication of the study results of the Research we are building. Please share Alliance to Combat HIV/AIDS in Africa (REACH), our the report with colleagues partnerships both inside and outside the University, and the quality and students. of event programming produced for our community. Highlights of 2010–11 included the visit and lecture by alumna Johnnetta Cole, director of the Smithsonian Institute’s cosponsored “After Tahrir: Egypt’s Ongoing Social Transformation,” Museum of African Art. We also welcomed quite a few writers, a daylong workshop organized by graduate student Rahma Baalavar including Tracy Kidder, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Doreen Baingana, that brought together experts and key witnesses to the events. The Benjamin Kwakye, Bayo Ojikutu, and James Kilgore. The Public “Teaching Africa” symposium, organized by undergraduate student Health in Africa lecture series was also a huge success, bringing Lydia Hsu, focused on high school and undergraduate education. together the large constituency of Northwestern interested in “Bridging Publishing Markets in African Studies: An International the future of public health. Speakers included Robert Bailey Workshop” was held in conjunction with NU Press and funded by a (epidemiology, at ), Carolyn Baer (Center grant from the Mellon Foundation. Another conference celebrated for Global Health, Feinberg the life and work of scholar Boubacar Boris Diop, with readings School of Medicine), Kathryn and paper presentations. The Oral History and Performance as Inside Mathers (anthropology, Duke), Social Action for Africana Studies (OPASA) two-day workshop Jean Hunleth (anthropology, brought together oral historians from Maine and Montreal to share ISITA news 2 Northwestern), Claire Wendland their work with diaspora communities and performance as a form New, visiting, and (anthropology, Wisconsin), of activism. returning scholars 4 Joseph Okeibunor (sociology/ The upcoming year looks to be just as exciting. We are pleased anthropology, Nigeria; Fulbright that faculty members Rachel Riedl (political science) and Ivy Working groups update 5 Scholar, Harvard), and Paula Wilson (English) have joined the PAS executive committee. The New papers by Gremley (Mwangaza Inc.). seminar room at PAS has been newly repainted and upgraded, and Ivor Wilks, PAS also hosted a number of art displays are being built for African art donated to PAS. Warren d’Azevedo 6 conferences relating to important We look forward to seeing new faces and hearing about the developments and ongoing issues new research coming out of our community. This issue of PAS News In memoriam: Continued on page 7 on the continent. In the wake highlights some of what you can expect in fall 2011. Justine Cordwell 8 of the revolution in Egypt, we ISITA news

ISITA seminar draws together Chicago-area Islam and Africa specialists

About once a quarter, a group of professors, students, and A meeting last spring featured a dissertation chapter by others who share interests in Islam and Africa gather in the ISITA visiting scholar Muhammad al-Munir Gibrill, a PhD PAS conference room for lively discussion of a colleague’s pre- student in Arabic language at Indiana University. Gibrill’s circulated paper. Several people from Northwestern have been paper was a close reading of a poem by Alhaj Umar Karchi regular participants in these meetings of the Chicago-Area (1858–1934), a Muslim scholar from the region of present-day Islam and Africa Seminar, established by the Institute for the Nigeria and , that describes the moment of encounter Study of Islamic Thought in Africa in 2006. between Africans and Europeans and details the damage The works discussed might range from a first-year gradu- inflicted by colonial intervention. ate student’s paper to a dissertation chapter to a draft of a jour- “Gibrill’s approach—grounding his reading and analysis nal article. Topics have included an analysis of an Arabic of the poem in postcolonial theory and literary discourse— treatise on slavery in West Africa, a paper about archaeological revealed important methodological and empirical gaps in our evidence of exchange between West Africa and Egypt, and a knowledge of African history,” said Montana, who attended book prospectus on the history of Islam in Africa. the seminar. “Using poems composed in ajami and Arabic, Northwestern participants have included faculty members Gibrill’s paper reconstructed histories of African responses to Muhammad Sani Umar (religion and ISITA), Robert Launay European colonialism through the lens of Umar Karchi.” (anthropology), Rudolph Ware (now Michigan), and Ruediger Seesemann (now Bayreuth) and affiliates Charles Stewart “The seminar and ISITA events in general (ISITA) and Kenneth Vaux (Garrett Evangelical). Graduate provide a cornerstone for collaborative students also participate actively. Coming from other area universities are Ralph Austen and research with like-minded specialists and Choukri Heddouchi (Chicago), Kim Searcy (Loyola), Babacar an interdisciplinary group of scholars working Mbengue (DePaul), Pap Aly Dramé (Domini- on various aspects of Muslim Africa.” can), and Ismael Musa —Ismael Musa Montana Montana (Northern Illi- nois). Montana (pictured [left] with Muhammad In the discussion, Gibrill stressed the importance of poetry al-Munir Gibrill) drives by sub-Saharan African authors in Arabic. “It has been under- almost four hours rated by Arabic language scholars,” he observed, “because it round-trip to attend. sometimes lacks the schemes of classical Arabic writing. Yet “The seminar is a perfect this misses the point that the poets are bringing African platform for staying in thought to the form.” He also noted that overlooking literature tune with discussions in Arabic or in African languages in Arabic script limits his- and debates central to my work and issues in the field,” he said. torical understanding of African responses to colonial rule and Visiting scholars with PAS or ISITA, including Paulo appreciation of the genres that gave expression to them. Farias (Birmingham), Knut Vikor (Bergen), Eloi Ficquet The Chicago-Area Islam and Africa Seminar is open to (EHESS, Paris), and Marta Garcia Novo (CCHS-CSIC, the public. To receive news of upcoming meetings, e-mail Madrid), have also made presentations to the seminar. ISITA assistant director Rebecca Shereikis at r-shereikis @northwestern.edu.

2 Farewell to Ruediger Seesemann

PAS and ISITA fondly bid farewell to Seesemann particularly strived to Ruediger Seesemann (religion), who has create opportunities for African scholars accepted a position as professor of through ISITA. Hassan Ndzovu of Moi Islamic studies at the University of University, Kenya, who was a visiting Bayreuth, Germany. Mellon postdoctoral fellow at PAS in Since arriving at Northwestern in 2010–11, first met Seesemann in 2003 January 2005, the specialist in Islam in and views their relationship as crucial to sub-Saharan Africa has been an ener- his development as a scholar. “There are getic, collegial member of the PAS and times when Ruediger has personally ISITA communities, while excelling in gone far out of his way to assist me and teaching, advising, and his own to see that I was successful in my stud- scholarship. ies,” Ndzovu observes. “I have changed Seesemann has played a key role in and developed academically. I am not articulating an intellectual agenda for the same person I was in 2003 when I ISITA and raising new funds to support first met him. I would like Ruediger to it. In 2005 he and then-colleague know that he has contributed to that Rudolph Ware (now Michigan) devel- Ruediger Seesemann (front row, left) with change in me.” Ndzovu’s revised disser- oped “Constituting Bodies of Islamic participants in a 2007 ISITA conference on Sufi texts tation, “Religion and Politics: The Knowledge,” a successful proposal to the Politicization of Islam in Kenya,” is Ford Foundation that is now in its sec- community and include the perspectives being considered by NU Press for ond three-year funding cycle. As part of of Tijani scholars in the production of publication. this grant, Seesemann directs a research the volume,” comments ISITA assistant Seesemann’s most recent book, The project concerned with literature pro- director Rebecca Shereikis. “This not Divine Flood: Ibrahim Niasse and the duced by members of the Tijaniyya Sufi only enriches the quality of the finished Roots of a 20th-Century Sufi Revival, was order, Africa’s largest Sufi order. The work but also opens up many pathways published by Oxford University Press in result of the project will be an encyclo- for dialog between ISITA and Tijani July 2011. pedia of Tijani authors and their works, scholars and intellectuals, many of ISITA and PAS thank Seesemann to be published by Brill in the Arabic whom have contributed to the volume for his significant contributions and Literature of Africa series. and eagerly await its publication.” wish him well in his new position. Preparation of this massive volume Another focus of Seesemann’s has involved collecting data in multiple attention was mentoring. locales, collaborating with a team of “Dr. Seesemann is a gifted scholar scholars from over 12 countries, and and a patient, dedicated mentor,” organizing several international working observes Alex Thurston, a PhD student meetings. “Ruediger has made a real in religion. “From my independent study effort to reach out to the Tijani with him in my first quarter to his thoughtful feedback during my prospec- tus defense, he has helped shape and inspire my graduate work.”

3 Community news

AfriSem reconvenes Two new Carter/Annan fellows arrive at PAS this fall. Nafissatou Sall (French and Italian) from Senegal will The interdisciplinary seminar AfriSem research the social, cultural, and political welcomes graduate students whose dimensions of colonialism and postco- research interests involve Africa or lonialism represented in Francophone Africans, from those finishing their dis- African literature. Abdeta Beyene (politi- sertations to first-year students in search cal science) from Ethiopia will study the of a research direction. microdynamics of Somali politics. The yearlong seminar focuses on Each year PAS awards Kofi Annan professional training and building a and Gwendolen M. Carter Fellowships community of intellectual, social, and Mellon appointee, to up to two outstanding African stu- practical support. Topics will include Carter/Annan fellows dents admitted to the Graduate School writing research proposals, applying for for disciplinary studies of Africa leading grants, publishing articles and books, arrive on campus to the PhD. Each fellowship provides entering the academic job market, re- three years of support, including full cent trends in African studies, fieldwork Fantahun Ayele Ibrahim is the second tuition for three years of graduate study, of the Panofsky Award winners, new visiting scholar brought to campus with a monthly stipend, and a teaching or re- books, the relationship between scholar- proceeds from the Global Encounters search assistantship within the student’s ship and activism, and other ideas that Mellon grant shared between PAS, the department for two additional years. come out of the initial meetings. Department of Performance Studies, AfriSem will meet at PAS from and Northwestern University Press. Graduate students 6 to 7:15 p.m. every other Thursday Ibrahim (above), from Ethopia, received beginning September 22. Members can his PhD in 2009 from Addis Ababa pursue fieldwork, count on a light supper and spirited University and has taught at Bahir Dar conversation. To join the mailing University for more than 10 years. other scholarly projects list, contact PAS assistant director Ibrahim will be at Northwestern Kate Dargis (k-dargis@northwestern until May 2012. He plans to revise his With the start of fall quarter, gradu- .edu), graduate coordinator Kofi Asante dissertation, “The Ethiopian Army: ate students who did fieldwork in ([email protected]), From Victory to Collapse, 1977–91,” Africa this summer through Panofsky or faculty coordinator Wendy Griswold for publication as a monograph by NU Predissertation Awards are returning to Andrew Brown ([email protected]). Press. He will teach a class focusing on campus: (performance the Ethiopian Revolution, the Ethio- studies) is back from South Africa, Valerie Freeland Somali war, Ethio-Soviet relations, and (political science) and Moses Khisa the Eritrean war of liberation. (political science) from Nate Mathews The first Mellon postdoctoral Uganda, (history) from Maavi Norman visitor was Hassan Ndzovu of Moi Oman, (political sci- Rachel University, Kenya. His revised disserta- ence) from Liberia and Senegal, Vanderpoel tion on the politicization of Islam in (political science) from Kenya is being considered by NU Press.The Mellon grant will fund one more postdoctoral appointment, to be announced in winter 2012.

44 Working groups poised for 2011–12 activities

Congo, Marlous van Waijenburg (history) PAS’ Working Group Award, now in its second year, supports faculty and gradu- and Chelsie Yount (anthropology) from ate student interdisciplinary groups addressing research issues in African studies. Senegal, and Nikki Yeboah (performance The maximum award per group is $5,000, and groups are encouraged to seek studies) from Ghana. external grant funding. Abdoulaye Sounaye (religion) Two groups that received awards in the past academic year will begin work published La discothèque islamique: this fall. One group that began in 2009–10 continues to be funded. CD et DVD au cœur de la Réislamisation Oral History and Performance as Social Action Institute for Africana Studies Nigérienne in Ethnographiques.org, volume 22, May 2011. He was also The OPASA working group has been funded for its initial planning stage. awarded a 2011–13 Northwestern OPASA serves researchers, artists, and community organizers who employ spo- University Presidential Fellowship. ken testimony and oral history as a central methodology in examining public Alex Thurston (religion) is in dissent, social movements, and human rights activism in Africa and the black Kano, Nigeria, for dissertation research diaspora. It is a scholarly resource for those who seek a greater understanding through June 2012 supported by the of the methodological techniques and the theoretical underpinnings of spoken Social Science Research Council and testimony and oral history research, analysis, and documentation. Contacts: the Wenner Gren Foundation. Over the Kate Dargis ([email protected]), D. Soyini Madison (dsmadison summer Thurston interned with Eurasia @northwestern.edu). Group, a political-risk consulting firm. Midwest Working Group in African Political Economy Marlous van Waijenburg (history) was invited to be a panelist at two The Midwest Working Group in African Political Economy (MGAPE) brings recent meetings. In April she was on together junior faculty and advanced graduate students in political science, eco- the panel “Colonial Legacies in Africa nomics, and public policy who combine research experience in Africa with train- and Asia: Accumulation, Extraction, ing in political economy methods. MGAPE (pronounced em-gah-pay) meets to and Investment Compared” at the discuss works-in-progress of regular members and invited guests. MGAPE meet- Third European Congress on World ings are built around in-depth discussions of six to eight papers, starting over and Global History at the London dinner on Friday and ending after a day of discussion on Saturday. The emphasis School of Economics. In September is on discussion rather than presentation, and members are encouraged to pres- she was on the panel “Institutions in ent work on which they would like feedback. MGAPE is a sister group to the the Developing World” at the annual Working Group in African Political Economy (WGAPE) at the University of conference of the Economic History California, Los Angeles (WGAPE papers are archived at www.sscnet.ucla.edu Association in Boston. /polisci/wgape/meeting.html). Contact: Rachel Riedl ([email protected]). Yordanos Tiruneh (sociology) won Remixing Borders: Transnational Hip-Hop Praxis and Youth Cultures in Africa the 2011 Martin Levine Best Graduate Student Paper Award from Sociologists This working group addresses hip-hop culture in Africa through the lenses of AIDS Network, American Sociological ethnomusicology and oral archive and as a performance practice and a living his- Association. tory. The group’s 2010–11 activities included a series of talks by scholars engaged in fieldwork on hip-hop in Africa, culminating in a May 7–10 “teach-in” titled “Remixing the Art of Social Change.” In the coming year it will continue to ex- plore the theory and practice of hip-hop in African cultural contexts, including the role of hip-hop cultural workers in African civil society, the effects of struc- tural adjustment programs in Africa as expressed through hip-hop lyrics, and the potential for social activism and cultural bridge building through hip-hop culture. Contact: Nate Mathews ([email protected]).

5 Emeriti professors’ papers published, launching new series

PAS’s new publications series featuring writings by alumni and emeriti professors has been launched in print and online, with papers by Warren L. d’Azevedo (PhD anthropology 1962) and Ivor Wilks, Herskovits Professor Emeritus of African Studies. Both papers can be read at www.northwestern.edu/african -studies/publications/special-publications.html.

The Zogbenya of Gola Sande: Tutelars of a Charter Myth Warren L. d’Azevedo

The following biography was adapted from the Warren L. d’Azevedo Collection, Indiana Unkiversity. Ivor Wilks (left) while serving as a second lieutenant, 376 Petrol Platoon, December 25, 1947 Warren d’Azevedo is an ethnographer of both the Washoe and the Gola of Liberia. His research interests in both the Great Basin and Africa date back to the 1950s. A Once and Past Love: Israel 1948, Palestine 1949 An emeritus professor of anthropology at the University Ivor Wilks of Nevada, Reno, d’Azevedo taught from 1964 to 1988. He is acknowledged as a pioneer in the field of African arts. His The following homage was written by Jeff Rice, senior lecturer in seminal work in the 1960s on the place of the artist in society history, PAS executive board member, and college adviser in the has influenced scholars in anthropology, art history, and muse- Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. ology for the past 45 years. Equally well known in the field of Over many years, those of us who were close to Ivor Wilks Native American studies, d’Azevedo is the author of numerous would be presented with what amounted to a samizdat ren- publications, including Straight with the Medicine: Narratives dering of his “Palestine Diary.” We all wanted to read this of Washoe Followers of the Tipi Way, and editor of Great Basin, first-person account of a young anticolonialist juggling his role which is volume 11 in the Smithsonian Institution’s encyclope- in the British army with his sympathies for Haganah. Finally, dic Handbook of North American Indians. after many years of research and a highly moving return to the D’Azevedo’s scholarly interests have never been divorced scene of the earlier participation, Ivor has created A Once and from his action in the world. He founded the University of Past Love: Israel 1948, Palestine 1949—a new narrative of the Nevada’s anthropology department and was instrumental in early political and intellectual influences that made him the creating the Black Students Organization. He has been an historian of Africa that he became. advocate of Native American religious freedom and coordi- Almost a decade before taking up a position at the nated field schools for graduate students that were funded University College of the Gold Coast (1953), Ivor was deeply by the National Science Foundation. He helped create the influenced by a generation of intellectuals and writers who Smithsonian Institution’s collection of African art. He has had engaged in anticolonial and antifascist activities. These been a human rights observer of elections in Liberia after included Frank Thompson (brother of the famed historian the protracted civil war and an important friend to Liberians E. P. Thompson), who was captured behind enemy lines and forced into exile. executed by the Germans in 1944. Another was Scots poet The Zogbenya of Gola Sande conveys the results of Hugh MacDiarmid—expelled from the Scottish Communist d’Azevedo’s investigations among the Gola, dealing specifically, Party for nationalist deviations and the Scottish Nationalist as he says, “with the significances of the masked imperson- Party for communist deviations—who came to symbolize the ations of supernatural beings whose mysterious identities are anticolonial struggle of the Celtic Fringe. dramatized in ritual, but whose possible exposition in sacred After being demobilized from the army in 1948 (after myth is rarely alluded to in public discourse and never in the service in Palestine), Ivor went to the University of Bangor popular lore of legend, proverb, song, or traditional tales.” (Wales) to study forestry, but after a bizarre set of linguistic

6 misunderstandings was designated to read philosophy. His days This move to West Africa linked Ivor to his third anti- in Bangor included participation in Welsh Nationalist politics colonial struggle. An account of his days in Ghana, his role in and the Welsh Republican Party, a more militant breakaway the development of Ghanaian historiography (which he calls wing. While at Bangor, Ivor also befriended a Ghanaian, the “decolonization” of West African history), and his interest Britton Spio-Garbrah, who was linked to Ghana leader in the spread of Islamic learning in West Africa remains to be Kwame Nkrumah and whose anticolonialist views Ivor shared. written. However, his friendship with Africanist historian Basil Graduating in 1951, Ivor pursued a graduate degree in Davidson, who, like Frank Thompson, went behind Nazi lines philosophy at Oxford and retained his involvement in Welsh to participate with Yugoslavian partisans under Tito, dates to politics. As editor of the Welsh Republican party newspaper, this time. Basil and Ivor began what ended up as a more than he weighed in sympathetically about what can only be called 50-year friendship and occasional collaboration. Indeed, what I “acts of terrorism” against the British government and drew would describe as the nationalist school of African historiogra- attention from the Special Branch. His editorial supporting phy owes much of its origin to this time and place. the bombing of an aqueduct (just four days before Queen Ivor remained in Ghana, moving from lecturer in phi- Elizabeth was to open a new dam fed by the aqueduct) was losophy to extramural tutor to professor of history, establishing denounced by a judge. An investigation was opened and an himself as one of the foremost practitioners in the field. indictment was expected, but the evidence was deemed insuf- The decade from 1947 through 1957, when Ghana ficient to proceed in court. achieved its independence, saw Ivor involved in three antico- At this point Ivor’s Oxford supervisor, Gilbert Ryle, lonial movements: Palestine/Israel, Wales, and Gold Coast/ offered him the chance to take up an appointment at the Ghana. Any effort to understand his intellectual and political University College of the Gold Coast. There he reconnected evolution must, by terms of the historical analysis he so loves, with his friend Spio-Garbrah and began his long-term involve- begin with this manuscript. It is with great pleasure that we ment in Nkrumah’s anticolonial politics. offer it at this time.

She dressed in the casual fashion of an academic, but Justine Cordwell, continued from back page spiced things up with her Yoruba jewelry, her son said. In the 1970s, Mrs. Cordwell returned to Nigeria, where a “talking carvings.” A man ushered them into a hut, where woman recognized her and called out: “Thank you for saving noises emanated from the carvings. “My father said it had to be my children!” a form of ventriloquism, and [the speaker] said, ‘There’s going Decades before, her son said, Mrs. Cordwell had supplied to a marriage. It is you two, and there will be three children. aspirin to the woman, who credited it with breaking a fever The first one will be a girl and next there will be two boys.’ that threatened her children’s lives. And that’s exactly what happened.” Even in her late 80s, Mrs. Cordwell helped curate exhibits She and Mr. Cordwell returned to Chicago and wed. He on African art and textiles at Northwestern and Loyola became a city planner and private architect whose projects Universities. Just this year, she published a paper on included Sandburg Village before he opened the Red Lion. Northwestern’s Program of African Studies website. She also Mrs. Cordwell taught at Northwestern and the City donated thousands of photographs from her African sojourn Colleges, and cowrote the books Fabrics of Culture and Visual to Northwestern. Arts: Plastic and Graphic. “Her work has inspired generations of scholars,” said African dignitaries were frequent visitors to the Cordwell Christine Mullen Kreamer, chief curator at the Smithsonian home, filled with African and contemporary art and Mies van National Museum of African Art. Mrs. Cordwell had a gift for der Rohe furniture, “a real ’60s house,” her son said. recognizing ashe—a Yoruba term for power and vitality—in an “She instilled in us a true academic curiosity, which is why artistic object, she said. I love history today,” her son said. When her children were In addition to her son Colin, Mrs. Cordwell is survived by young, she’d say: “‘Get away from the TV—today, you’re going her son, Ian, and four grandchildren. Her daughter, Claire, died to read about Marco Polo,’ or ‘We’re going to a museum.’’’ before her.

7 PAS mourns alumna Justine Cordwell

This obituary of Justine Cordwell, who studied for a PhD under beer and kidney pie that used to be on Lincoln Avenue. She Melville Herskovits, was written by Maureen O’Donnell for the developed all its recipes. Chicago Sun-Times of July 6, 2011. Reprinted with permission. Her eccentricity matched her adventurousness. When her children brought home a stray dog who carried an infestation Justine Cordwell proba- of fleas—“It made the locusts plague in the Old Testament bly could have done look like A Moment,” said her son, Colin—she responded to what many women did the pestilence, not by bug-bombing the home, but by promptly after The War: marry a strapping four flea collars around her own neck. nice man, settle down, The funny thing was, it worked, her son said. “But the rest raise a family. of us were scratching for our lives.” Which she did. Mrs. Cordwell, who has been called the “grande dame” of But first she took a little African studies in Chicago, died while reading June 27 at her detour. Lincoln Park home. She was 91. As a young gradu- She was born in Berkeley, California. “She said her father ate student in 1948, she would take her to [San Francisco’s] Chinatown in the ’20s, and went to Nigeria to study you would see all the Chinese in traditional Chinese clothing, and found herself danc- and the fog would come in and cut the bay in half,” her son ing at the wedding fes- said. “Her wishes are to have her ashes scattered in San tivities of a king who was about to take his 17th wife. She Francisco Bay.” became a renowned expert on Yoruba art and culture who Her family moved to Chicago and she graduated from wrote scholarly papers into her 90s. Lakeview High School in 1938. She studied at the Art In Africa, she fell in love with Englishman John D. Institute of Chicago and at the University of California, Cordwell, a former RAF pilot and prisoner of war who was Berkeley, and worked on her doctorate at Northwestern often credited with being the inspiration for the Donald University under Melville J. Herskovits, who founded the Pleasence character of “The Forger” in the film The Great school’s African studies program. Escape. They later married, and with her husband, she helped She won a Rockefeller fellowship for fieldwork in Africa. run the old Red Lion pub, a beloved British outpost of good She arrived in 1948 and stayed for about 18 months. A Caucasian woman traveling by herself was then a rarity in Nigeria, but her art background also set her apart. She approached artists with respect, and she used old Boy Scout tools to fashion carvings of her own that helped her befriend Published by Northwestern University’s Program of African local carvers. Studies, 620 Library Place, Evanston, Illinois 60208-4110 “She had an immediate rapport with the artists she was Kate Dargis, Assistant Director studying, which the anthropologists who were supervising her Rebecca Shereikis, ISITA Assistant Director didn’t quite have,” said David Easterbrook, curator of the Kelly Coffey, Program Assistant Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern. Phone 847-491-7323 | Fax 847-491-3739 At a royal wedding for a monarch taking his 17th wife, he [email protected] asked her to join his 16 other wives in a dance. She did a little www.northwestern.edu/african-studies rumba, and the king loved it, she reported. Northwestern is an affirmative action, equal opportunity educator She developed into an authority on Yoruba culture and art. and employer. ©2011 Northwestern University. All rights reserved. Produced by University Relations. 9-11/300/RM-GD/1187-1 “She could tell you what village the carving came from and she could even tell you the carver’s name,” her son said. Justine and John—an architect who was in Nigeria to help design the University of Ibadan—were invited to meet some

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